Guessing Game

In my effort to be more healthy, yet desiring a treat, I made a little something that my mom used to make and tried to bill as "treats." They really are yummy, but not very cool (especially NOT as a birthday treat)!! Can you guess what it is? (HINT: Michelle, you have the best chance at guessing)...

What Nick Did Today

9:00 a.m. "At least it wasn't on the carpet."

1:00 p.m. "At least wood floors are already brown."

2:00 p.m. (All these towels -- and the surrounding carpet -- are mopping up the 1" of water caused by Nick bringing the hose inside the house and not getting noticed for quite some time.) "It's time for a nap RIGHT NOW!"

A Must See TV Dedication

1995 *To Courtney who I gave birth to the week after the very traumatic ER episode in it's first season when the mom gives birth and dies in labor and the dad and baby are left alone rocking together in the recovery room. (And to my midwife who when I just opened my mouth to say, "I have one question," said, "If you're about to ask about ER, that does NOT happen!")
*To Dan who cried with me at the end of the episode.
1996/1997 *To Central Standard Time which allowed me to get Courtney to bed before the first show started at 8:00 p.m. so Dan and I could watch Seinfeld without our baby.
1997 *To Tiffany who was my Thursday night buddy while our husbands worked late. And to that Hot Wings place that had THE BEST hot wings for Thursday night TV (what was it called?!!?)
1998 *To Phyllis who joined us on our last Thursday night in The City and introduced us to Chubby Hubby which became a staple of the Ross and Rachel years.
2000 *To Bekah who joined me and To Dan again who finally was able to be home early enough to watch our taped episodes.
2000 *To the VCR which allowed us to tape the episodes so we could watch with Dan when he got home from work.
2001 - 2003 *To Rachel who was with me on so many premeire nights!
2004 * To CSI which gave us something to watch when NBC was so pathetic
2005 * To Without A Trace that gave us another thing to watch when CSI got so gory and ER should have been cancelled.
2006 * To The Office and My Name is Earl that survived Spring debuts made Thursday a night to look forward to again!
2007 * To another great year!

Veggie Pasta Surprise!! Part 1

Thanks to Winder Dairy home grocery delivery, my family actually had food once a week last year when I never had the time to shop. I would supplement with daily trips to our local market, simply called, The Store. I guess I should say that I never had the time nor the energy to plan ahead enough with a list to make a trip clear down to the supermarket (seriously, it's far), park miles away, push the grocery cart with a truck on the front with Nick in it and navigate the towering aisles to find a weeks worth of food.

Winder Dairy still delivers to us once a week and yesterday I forgot to get online and cancel the items I didn't need. I loaded my fridge this morning and realized I was overflowing with mushrooms, broccoli, carrots and cottage cheese. So, I had a great idea. I'll make a veggie lasagna! But since lasagna noodles are a pain, I'll just make a veggie pasta bake. What a great way to use those veggies up! I got everything out of the fridge and realized I had a lot of chopping ahead of me and had another great idea... OHHH! I'll pull out the Cuisnart from the dark recesses of the cabinets and snap through in no time!

Well I have to say, it really did chop and shred in no time. And when I was done I filled the BIGGEST metal mixing bowl FULL of sliced broccoli, mushrooms and carrots. I felt like mom! So I added whole wheat pasta shells (ooh..even more like mom), cottage cheese and a jar of marinara sauce. Which wasn't enough. So I added another jar. Still not enough. Had to add a third jar (it's all Rao's and it's about 10 bucks a jar). Suddenly I realized this veggie bake was not only expensive, but I had enough to feed the neighborhood. And sadly, it's so healthy it's one of those dishes there's no way you'd share with the family who just had a baby because they'd probably 1) hate it and 2) think you're a freak. And knowing it's so healthy I realized that my own children will also 1) hate it and 2) think I'm a freak.

Fortunately I'm realistic enough to expect that my boys will say it stinks and they hate mushrooms anyway and Courtney will say it tastes really good but she's not that hungry. Dan will LOVE it but add he had a late lunch and ask, "Does anyone want toast?"

So as a last-ditch effort to make it appealing to the family, I added a block of shredded cheddar cheese and put it in the oven to cook anyway. And then I decided to blog about my efforts and laugh while I still can!! I'll update with Part 2 to give everyone's reactions and how it all turned out later this evening.

...Just realizing I probably won't do it later this evening because it's premeire night for my Thursday shows -- a 12-year dedication to "Must See TV" makes this the biggest night of my year. RACHEL, I MISS YOU! However, I will enjoy with Dan. I'm remembering that other years I made Chicken Enchiladas or Hot Wings to usher in the event, not to mention tons of candy and ice cream. No sugar this year and only Veggie Pasta Bake. I hope I'll be able to look back and laugh!

Things I've Been Thinking About

I want to be better at writing Thank you's.
I want to make time to have lunch with my friends.
I want to keep up with my blogging!
I want to keep my house organized for at least one week!
I want to fold the laundry and put it away on the same day it's washed.
I'd like to make time to get my car washed regularly.

It's My Birthday!

It's my birthday! Feel free to post heartfelt comments here! :-)

Arthur

Sue Ellen just had an epilogue on today's episode of Arthur that brought tears to my eyes. It was the one about the school fire and Sue Ellen losing her journal. I haven't been moved by a PBS show since Mr. Rogers went off the air. But I'm really enjoying the new episodes of Arthur. Anyone else?

Courtney and Nick Make Bread

Courtney expanded her ever-growing talents by making bread on Sunday! She let Nick help her and they made two awesome loaves of french bread. Not only that, she did it all by herself without any help from mom or dad. (Which really goes without saying because my bread-making experience is truly limited.) Way to go Courtney!

CyberWorld!

I've finally had an experience to make me understand the usefulness of text messaging during church! Of course Dan and his business partner used to entertain themselves during Sunday School in the past by texting, but I was never happy about it -- c'mon, aren't we old enough to give our full attention to the teacher?! (And then I was released from Primary and attended Sunday School for the first time in many years and realized that yes, sometimes Sunday School is boring.)

So here's what happened last Sunday...

Chad (Dan's business partner and now bishopric member) was conducting the meeting. He finished the ward business and we were singing the sacrament song when I realized, "AAH!! I forgot to remind the bishopric that we had a child baptized last week and they needed to call him up to the front and congratulate him. (Big, important event in an 8-year-old's life -- getting baptized and then getting called up and welcomed to the ward after baptism.) So I look at Dan, panicked, and whisper, "They forgot to call Cole up!" And I'm wondering if there was any way to discreetly alert the bishopric--notes, hand signals, ESP, blinking eyes...what...what...??!!!?

With no hesitation Dan whips out his BlackBerry and seconds later has texted, "Do you need to call Cole up about baptism?"

He hits send.

We stare at Chad, sitting on the stand.

In less than a second Chad feels the vibrate as his BlackBerry alerts him he has a message. He looks at Dan; eyes raise in silent question, "You?"

Dan nods almost imperceptably.

Chad reaches into his coat pocket and checks the phone. He shows the note to the Bishop. They whisper.

Chad glances at us and mouths a quick, "Thanks."

After the Sacrament is passed, Cole gets called up to the front and the meeting continues without a glitch. Hooray for the Cyber world!!

Modern Life

Have you ever tried to get dressed in the dark now that t-shirts don't have tags? It's hard.

Dishwasher OCD

And just when I thought I didn't have a thing to post...

Was reading on my friend, Betsy's, blog where she commented that she had OCD when it came to loading the dishwasher, among other things. Hey! So do I! But anyone who's ever lived with or visited me already knows that. I can't help but reload the dishwasher after you when I see you doing it "wrong!" I blame it on Mom and the FHE we had on loading the dishwasher. She was so good at instructing on how to get it organized just the right way so everything would fit AND the added benefit of water actually hitting the dirty dishes and cleaning them, that the stars aligned, angels sang and I was in dishwashing loading heaven for the rest of my life! I subscribe to the theory that if you do it perfectly, everything will really fit. And of course I've proved it many a time when I've walked through the kitchen and someone is so kindly loading my dishwasher for me and I reach over and start rearranging what they've loaded. Do I say, "thank you for loading my dishes!" Or, "Wow! What a treat -- I really appreciate you!" No. Instead I say, "Want to learn something neat? If you load it the "right" way, you'll fit everything in and it will get clean too!!" So to all of you, I want you to know I'm truly sorry. I may not try to get better (because of course I really do believe I'm right :-)), but I do apologize for rearranging.

I want everyone to know they have permission to discuss this weakness of mine behind my back. I know it's annoying. I hope you can chuckle and say something to the extent of, "It's just Angela. She has dishwasher OCD. We want to kill her, but we love her anyway."

Water Balloons

What do you do if you find a package of balloons? Fill them up with water and head to the tallest spot of course!

Football Season!

BYU vs. Arizona State -- It's fall in Provo!